Berry Petroleum Announces Piceance Basin Acquisition

Robert Heinemann, president and chief executive officer, stated,"This is a tremendous opportunity for Berry as we diversify ourportfolio with another long-lived, low geologic risk natural gas assetthat is an excellent entry into the prolific Piceance Basin. We willbe the operator and own a 50% working interest in 6,314 gross acrestargeting gas in the Williams Fork section of the Mesaverde formation.We anticipate that our full-life finding and development cost will beless than $2.20 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) and are increasing our2006 capital budget by an additional $30 million to $190 million todevelop this resource. We have two rigs dedicated to this project andbased on the productivity of this acreage and surrounding producingoperations we estimate that we will prove up significant reserves bythe end of 2006. We are seeking to add additional drilling rigs toaccelerate development and intend to hedge a portion of our futureproduction from the asset."

The effective date of the transaction is October 1, 2005. Closingis expected by March 1, 2006 and will be funded under the Company'sexisting credit facility. The completion of the transaction is subjectto certain conditions and there is no assurance that all suchconditions will be satisfied.

About Berry Petroleum Company

Berry Petroleum Company is a publicly traded independent oil andgas production and exploitation company with its headquarters inBakersfield, California and a regional office in Denver, Colorado.Since 2003, Berry has added over 1,000,000 acres to its oil and gasasset portfolio with acreage in California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas,Nebraska and North Dakota.

Safe harbor under the "Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of1995"

Any statements in this news release that are not historical factsare forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.Words such as "will," "estimates," "expected," "anticipate," "intend,"and others indicate forward-looking statements and important factorswhich could affect actual results are discussed in Part II of Berry'sForm 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under theheading "Other Factors Affecting the Company's Business and FinancialResults" in the section titled "Management's Discussion and Analysisof Financial Condition and Results of Operations."